Professor Richard Vatz of Towson University in Towson, Maryland, says that despite academic world priding itself on “supporting the marketplace of ideas and academic freedom,” there has been “an increasing and unremitting effort to eliminate conservatives” in areas of higher education. The professor added that when he brought up his concerns with the National Communication Association, “they couldn’t care less.”

“There has been an increasing and unremitting effort to eliminate conservatives and conservative thought in the humanities and social sciences in the American academy,” wrote professor Vatz in his recent Baltimore Sun op-ed, entitled, “Towson professor: Higher ed discriminates against conservatives.”

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“Higher education prides itself on two overarching values: supporting the marketplace of ideas and academic freedom,” said Vatz. “Channeling the late civil rights advocate President John F. Kennedy, who said ‘Are we to say to the world — and much more importantly, to each other — that this is the land of the free, except for the Negro?’”

“Today, he would have said of colleges and universities, ‘Are we to say to the world — and much more importantly, to each other — higher education today is for diversity and equity except for conservatives?’” he added.

Professor Vatz, who has taught at Towson University for the past 45 years, said that he is also familiar with universities around the country, as he has been invited to speak at many of them, and has been on the Legislative Assembly at the National Communication Association (NCA), as well as involved with the Eastern Communication Association.

“The anti-conservatism is increasing at most national education venues,” said Vatz.

“To be fair,” he added, “there is an undercurrent of guilt or self-awareness among some, if not many, relating to the hypocrisy of ostensible support for supporting the free flow of differing ideas while perpetrating overt discrimination in hiring, promotion, tenure, college campus and convention participation and publishing of those on the right.”

The professor noted that “despite the continuing and increasing bigotry” in the NCA against conservatives, he has “long been a conspicuous advocate of fairness” to those who are not on the left.

“I have had lengthy exchanges with the current president, the immediately former president and the executive director of the NCA concerning their need to rectify the current situation which led to more than a score of their limited number of open conservatives leaving the organization,” said Vatz.

“The NCA couldn’t care less,” he added.

(Excerpt from Breitbart. Article by Alana Mastrangelo.)

IFA Editor’s note: I read this with interest as my 3 oldest children are in college right now. On the day we excerpted this article, my son who attends an Ivy League college received a paper graded with the notation, “Ps 71:8” (My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.). He has not reported hostility to Christianity but rather lots of questions and openness. He is involved with a great Christian group on campus. Another child attends Liberty University, which has supported and bolstered her faith. My third attends a large public institution. He has experienced hostility to conservativism on many levels, from dorm situations to the classroom. In his case, it is making him more conservative (and he was already very conservative!). I tell you this to say that God is at work in higher education. It’s not all bad news.

But why should the left wing, anti-God bias surprise us? The Bible describes what is happening in universities today clearly:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,  so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,  so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,  and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18-2:5)

Let’s share good reports. Have you experienced support for Christianity in higher education, openness to lots of ideas? Share your story in the comments section below.